Stories of when cultures meet

“Although traditionally in Bulgaria you only drank tea (without milk) when you were unwell, you can find all kinds of tea, including tea made from a variety of different herbs. Remember, though, that if you do want a traditional ‘cuppa’, you will probably be presented with a cup or, more likely, a glass of hot water, some sugar and a tea bag. You will be expected to brew up yourself at the table. And if you want milk, you will have to ask for it!”*

Needless to say, the course book is written by a British guy. Brewing your own tea at the table! Ridiculous! And having to ask for milk! Has the author never been anywhere else but the UK and Bulgaria? Or is he taking into account that the audience is not well-traveled? Either way, he is consistent. Another quote:

“Bulgarian has almost the equivalents of the English words for [the] subject pronouns, but there are two small differences. First, the Bulgarian аз, I is written with a small letter and, second, Bulgarian has two different words for you: ти for the singular, familiar form and вие for the plural.”*

Again, nothing new to me here. English is the only language I know (and I know a few) that writes I with a capital, and that doesn’t make a difference between singular and plural in pronouns. It’s hard to imagine that the Bulgarian language would be the first encounter of a native English speaker with the outside world.

I find it very funny to see how the background of the speaker so strongly reflects in the texts. I always prefer to buy English books for studying languages and culture, because these are often cheaper and easier to find than Dutch ones, and the language is not a problem for me. However, all too often the perspective of the author (American or British) is clearly influencing the story, which makes me long for a Dutch version.

When working for Epson in Munich, the staff comprised 14 nationalities. That was fun because you would hear different languages the whole day. Of course I had lots of Japanese colleagues and quickly learned the notedly polite way of communicating and the concept of “maintaining face”.

But one thing bothered me the whole time: My Japanese colleagues would shuffle their feet, thereby causing an annoying sound on the floor. To me it seemed rude. After weeks of amazement why one would choose to scuff one’s feet, I asked a colleague I had befriended. She explained that some Japanese regard lifting their feet too far from the earth as a sign of arrogance. So it was a gesture of respect or humbleness! I liked that a lot and was fascinated of how cultures interpret behaviour so differently and of course the sound never annoyed me again…

An intriguing portrait of girls moving from the Chinese rural areas to the cities to work in factories. It gives an insider's view on life in these factories. The author, an American woman of Chinese descent, describes her encounters with these girls in a very personal way.

Almost every cashier girl at our supermarket here in Amsterdam is of foreign, non-western descent. I put my groceries on the conveyor belt and as soon as the girl starts scanning my products, she says Hello, while hardly looking at me. When it's time to pay, she softly mentions the amount, as if talking to herself, while her staring eyes tell me it must have been a rough day. As she hands me the receipt, her attention is already at the next groceries to scan. I used to think this all was because these girls were unmotivated teenagers.

Once the general manager of that supermarket must have wanted to improve their service level. Two blond Dutch girls were hired, who were very cheerful and always made eye contact when they said 'Good afternoon' with a smile. I was very surprised, because I wasn't even used to making eye contact with the cashier girls anymore.

Later I was at a Turkish supermarket. There, the people at the counter were an adult Turkish man and woman. But they also made very little eye contact, and only said the 'compulsory' Hello, the amount to pay, Thank you and Bye.

Then I thought, maybe it is a cultural difference. Maybe these people find it correct not to make eye contact. Or is it because I'm not 'one of them'? At the supermarkets in China the cashiers would not even say hello, even to Chinese people. They just do their job. Period.

Is it typical Dutch/western to expect a cashier to make eye contact, smile and say hello? And why should they, if they do their job right…

I often hear that the lunches in the Netherlands are quite typical. I used to work as a volunteer for AFS, an organization for intercultural exchange programs for highschool students. We organized a camp where the new students from abroad came to straight from the airport, where they had a few days to acclimatize before they were picked up by their host families. Every time at lunch I had to explain the students at the table how to eat a Dutch lunch (and not insult/annoy your host family).
* Take one (1) slice of bread
* Pick one (1) kind of topping, and take one (1) slice.
* Put the topping on one half of the bread
* Cut the bread in half, and put the empty half on top of the other one.
* Eat it
* Repeat from step one if still hungry.

What they did if I didn’t tell them anything
* One slice of bread
* Take all different toppings on the table in fairly large amounts
* Stack all the toppings on top of each other, no matter what kind, sweet, salty, everything
* Take another slice of bread and put it on top.
* Do your best to hold the whole sandwich and eat it without things falling out.

I used to explain them that we, the Dutch, don’t eat sandwiches. We eat bread with cheese. Or with ham. Or with chocolate sprinkles. It probably came across as very stingy. But many of the host families would otherwise have just thought that they were stuck with this greedy, malmannered teenager for a year.

Although I must say that good bread doesn’t need much. I haven’t had truly good bread outside the Netherlands.